The World Must Not Forget Climate Change

The COVID-19 pandemic underlines the fact that we are all in this together: no country is immune from major global threats. And the same solidarity between countries and peoples is needed to address the even greater risk of climate change.

DESSAU-ROßLAU – If the current coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it is that our interconnected, globalized economies and societies are highly vulnerable to sudden shocks.

The COVID-19 outbreak, and the horrendous scale of its impact, was an unforeseeable “black swan” event. Right now, the imperative is to fast-track packages and policies that help to fight the health crisis, protect the vulnerable, and pave the way to restarting our economies once the pandemic is past its peak. That also will be the moment for governments, scientists, and the public to pause, take stock of lessons learned, and introduce plans to make societies more resilient and better able to cope with possible future pandemics.

But we risk ignoring a far greater challenge to civilization, namely climate change. And that is decidedly not a “black swan” issue, given that the scientific early-warning bells have been ringing – increasingly loudly – for years.

As in any emergency, time is of the essence. Without speedy intervention now, climate change could harm the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, put countless communities at grave risk, threaten the very existence of coastal cities and small island states, and trigger damage affecting generations to come. Global warming, and environmental change generally, is also set to increase the risk of old diseases re-emerging and current illnesses like malaria spreading geographically. New health threats could emerge, too – the Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia in the late 1990s being a case in point.

Fortunately, we also already know what we need to do to address climate change and create a better, more sustainable world. If we act on that knowledge, our societies would be as economically productive as they are today, but with new kinds of green jobs, cleaner air, healthier oceans, less polluted communities, and perhaps greater social justice.

Tackling climate change (and other global and national threats) requires an approach that rejects the divisive narrowness of “me, my interests, and my country first” in favor of a larger “us” united by our shared interest and common cause: survival. More concretely, scientists argue that we should limit global warming to 1.5°C in order to avoid more frequent and harmful extreme weather events, and to protect natural systems like coral reefs and tropical forests such as the Amazon.

Subscribe to Project Syndicate

Enjoy unlimited access to the ideas and opinions of the world's leading thinkers, including weekly long reads, book reviews, and interviews; The Year Ahead annual print magazine; the complete PS archive; and more – all for less than $2 a week.

Subscribe Now

Thanks to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the world has a roadmap for achieving a low-carbon future. Almost every country has a national plan under which rich countries need to provide support to poorer ones, and governments ratchet up their climate efforts over time. The ambitious goal is to achieve, by 2050, a “net-zero” world that can look itself in the eye and say, “We did it.”

The COVID-19 pandemic underlines the fact that we are all in this together: no country is immune from major global threats. And the same solidarity between countries and peoples is needed to address the even greater risk of climate change.

There are reasons to be optimistic. Clean energy capacity such as wind and solar is doubling every 5.5 years, if not faster, and the electrification of transportation is underway.

But we are still behind the curve in a range of sectors. For example, the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction estimates that the way we build and operate our homes and workplaces accounts for almost 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Whereas scientists can often rapidly develop a vaccine against a disease, we will not cure the climate-change problem if we only partly address it. The next few years will be critical, starting with the COP26 climate conference scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom in November – five years after the landmark Paris summit. It is vital that the vast majority of governments, supported by a critical mass of local authorities, businesses, and NGOs, step up their climate ambition at this year’s gathering.

As citizens, meanwhile, we should urge our governments to do the right thing by tackling global warming at speed and scale. And once the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, we must come together in our workplaces, communities, and homes to support the realization of a healthier and climate-safe future. In that way, we can make 2020 a year to remember for good reasons, too.

Support High-Quality Commentary

For more than 25 years, Project Syndicate has been guided by a simple credo: All people deserve access to a broad range of views by the world's foremost leaders and thinkers on the issues, events, and forces shaping their lives. At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, that mission is more important than ever – and we remain committed to fulfilling it.

But there is no doubt that we, like so many other media organizations nowadays, are under growing strain. If you are in a position to support us, please subscribe now.

As a subscriber, you will enjoy unlimited access to our On Point suite of long reads and book reviews, Say More contributor interviews, The Year Ahead magazine, the full PS archive, and much more. You will also directly support our mission of delivering the highest-quality commentary on the world's most pressing issues to as wide an audience as possible.

By helping us to build a truly open world of ideas, every PS subscriber makes a real difference. Thank you.

New Comment

It appears that you have not yet updated your first and last name. If you would like to update your name, please do so here.

Pin comment to this paragraph

After posting your comment, you’ll have a ten-minute window to make any edits. Please note that we moderate comments to ensure the conversation remains topically relevant. We appreciate well-informed comments and welcome your criticism and insight. Please be civil and avoid name-calling and ad hominem remarks.

Mass protests over racial injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a sharp economic downturn have plunged the United States into its deepest crisis in decades. Will the public embrace radical, systemic reforms, or will the specter of civil disorder provoke a conservative backlash?

For democratic countries like the United States, the COVID-19 crisis has opened up four possible political and socioeconomic trajectories. But only one path forward leads to a destination that most people would want to reach.

Log in/Register

Please log in or register to continue. Registration is free and requires only your email address.

Emailrequired

PasswordrequiredRemember me?

Please enter your email address and click on the reset-password button. If your email exists in our system, we'll send you an email with a link to reset your password. Please note that the link will expire twenty-four hours after the email is sent. If you can't find this email, please check your spam folder.